For AstroClassified Members in the Southeast US

[markvcostello3]

Hi All:

Suppose it's a hot summer day. You had a thunderstorm break over your area earlier today. Now the skies are clearing and it looks like clear skies for tonight (not including all the water vapor and dust in the air). But it's hot, balmy and maybe steamy after the thunderstorm. Would you observe that night? I currently do not, my concerns being (in this order) care of my gear and the sky conditions for observing that night. I'm asking because I might be too conservative in doing this.

Thanks.


Mark Costello
Matthews, NC

[BT Technologies]

Hello Mark,

Living in South Florida the scenario you wrote about below is often the case around here.

I have found that those hazy muggy nights can actually have some of the most steady seeing making planetary details pop out in amazing clarity.

IMO astronomy eqpt are tools that are designed to be used and enjoyed. As long as it is not raining I see no problem to take out your eqpt and enjoy.

Originally Posted by markvcostello3

Hi All:

Suppose it's a hot summer day. You had a thunderstorm break over your area earlier today. Now the skies are clearing and it looks like clear skies for tonight (not including all the water vapor and dust in the air). But it's hot, balmy and maybe steamy after the thunderstorm. Would you observe that night? I currently do not, my concerns being (in this order) care of my gear and the sky conditions for observing that night. I'm asking because I might be too conservative in doing this.

Thanks.


Mark Costello
Matthews, NC

[markvcostello3]

Thanks, Brian, for your response. I have taken my refractor out in these situations a few times. I keep my gear in the house, nice and air conditioned (with my refractor in its case). So what I run into when I set up on a steamy night is a quick fogging of the lens. I'll take it back in and fan off the water droplets. Most of the time that works, some times, it just fogs right back.

I'll remember what you said about the balmy summer evening skies being steady for high power viewing of the planets. Jupiter is now making its way into the evening skies (I'm an evening guy) but it's not very high in the southern sky so I can use all the help I can get with it this year. Last year viewing it at 220X was a real treat. It still is an enjoyable experience this year but not quite like last year.

Take care,

Mark Costello
Matthews, NC

[galacticphoto]

Mark:

Take a look at the various scope heaters. They will take care of the fogging problem once the scope temp stabilizes. Hot muggy nights here in the south require heaters on refractors, SCTs, and others with unprotected optics. I use newts and cass as the main imagers, but refractors for guiding. The heater on the refractors (and finder scopes) lets me operate under heavy dewing.

Robert

[BT Technologies]

Excellent point Robert!! I exclusively use Kendrick heaters on all of my scopes to help prevent condensation (dew) buildup on my optics.

At the end of a imaging/viewing session, I simply bring in my OTA's and let them sit in a nice clean cool room uncovered to let any residual condensation evaporate.

Originally Posted by galacticphoto

Mark:

Take a look at the various scope heaters. They will take care of the fogging problem once the scope temp stabilizes. Hot muggy nights here in the south require heaters on refractors, SCTs, and others with unprotected optics. I use newts and cass as the main imagers, but refractors for guiding. The heater on the refractors (and finder scopes) lets me operate under heavy dewing.

Robert

[markvcostello3]

I thought I'd check back in this string with a little note on an 75 minute long observing session last Tuesday July 3, 2007. Clouds and rain had kept my 4" achro in its case the last three weeks, so I figured I'd better take advantage of the clear skies. The night was maybe what I'd call tepid. It was not opressingly warm but not cool either. It did not rain that afternoon and the air did not seem particularly humid. OTOH, it appeared to be fouled as I noticed a yellow haze or mist under a street lamp in our cul-de-sac. I didn't see clouds but the night sky did seem hazy and I had trouble recognizing many of the constellations. In times past I might have bagged the session but with this string in mind, I went ahead. Jupiter was in a nice expanse of sky between two trees in my neighbor's yard. So I figured I'd observe it and Epsilon Lyrae. (I take very long looks at just a few objects when I go out, taking notes and making sketches. I don't do quick peeks, my shortest sessions lasts about an hour - unless it is cut short by clouds rolling in.)

Jupiter is pretty far south this year and in earlier sessions this seasons it has yielded fewer details on the average than last year. However, last Tuesday night's views of Jupiter may have been the best since I've been observing it. I made notes of its appearance at 26X, 110X, and 220X. I'll write about the views at 220X. Once I got used to its brilliance, I started noticing a lot of details in what I'll call the tropical and subtropical zones of the planet. In this area, I normally see the two darker subtropical bands with festoons from them trailing into the whiter tropical zone. With prolonged observation during last Tuesday session, the south subtropical zone yielded detail that I evidently missed in the earlier sessions. It resolved into at least three thinner bands marked with all sorts of "small" swirls. Between it and the north subtropical zone was a roiling pattern of swirls that looked like what you might see on a Paisely Tie. As these details emerged under prolonged viewing, my jaws just dropped all the more.

I also checked out Epsilon Lyrae, mostly spending time at 110X (although I viewed it also at 220X. I like the view at 110X better ever since I noticed how in last year's sessions it appeared to be framed in a lattice of very faint stars, some of them appearing close and even between the two pairs of doubles. Again it was so last Tuesday night. Based on a comparison of last Tuesday to last year's sessions with clearer and darker nights and last year's notes on Cloudy Nights, I'm guessing that I was seeing down to almost the 11th magnitude. Last year, it appears that the scope may have gone a bit deeper with the darker skies (maybe around 11.2-11.4).

Okaaaaaaay, now I see what y'all and other amateurs mean about balmy nights being good for planetary details.

Thanks.


Mark Costello
Matthews, NC